This invention relates to packaging solutions for use with contact lenses. In particular, the invention provides packaging solutions for use with contact lenses made of hydrophobic materials.
The use of contact lenses for correction of ocular refractive disorders is widespread due, in part, to the cosmetic appeal of contact lenses. Preferably, contact lenses are made of materials with high oxygen permeabilities, or oxygen permeabilities of about 10 Dk or greater. However, as a material""s oxygen permeability increases, typically the material becomes increasingly hydrophobic.
When a contact lens made of a hydrophobic material comes in contact with another hydrophobic material, the lens"" surface adheres to the material""s surface. This is problematic in the packaging of the lenses because typical contact lens packaging materials are hydrophobic. Thus, the contact lens can adhere to the packaging material causing lens deformation or breakage.
The invention provides a packaging solution for contact lenses made of hydrophobic materials. In particular, the invention provides a packaging solution for contact lenses made of hydrophobic materials that substantially prevents adherence of the lenses to a package""s surfaces.
In one embodiment, the invention provides a contact lens packaging solution comprising, consisting essentially of, and consisting of between about 0.1 and about 250 ppm of a surfactant, preferably 0.1 to about 40 ppm more preferably about 1 to about 40 ppm, wherein the surfactant has ahydrophile-lipophile balance of about 10 to about 30. It is an unexpected discovery of the invention that the use of very small amounts of certain surfactants in a lens packaging solution substantially prevents adherence of the hydrophobic lens to a package surfaces substantially eliminating breakage or deformation of the lens in the package.
For purposes of the invention, by xe2x80x9chydrophobic lensxe2x80x9d is a lens made from at least one hydrophobic monomer. The packaging solutions of the invention may find particular utility when used for the storage of non-ionic lenses. Lenses for use with the solutions of the invention may be made from acquafilcon, alphafilcon, atlafilcon, etafilcon, bulifilcon, lenefilcon, lidifilcon, lotrafilcon, methafilcon, ocufilcon, perfilcon, phemfilcon, vilifilcon, Saufon, Hydron, and the like, and combinations thereof. Preferably, the lens is an acquafilcon or lenefilcon lens.
The surfactants suitable for use in the invention are of any suitable molecular weight, preferably about 200 to about 1,000,000, more preferably about 10,000 to about 18,000, most preferably about 12,000 to about 18,000. Useful surfactants have a hydrophile-lipophile balance (xe2x80x9cHLBxe2x80x9d) of about 10 to about 30, preferably about 15 to about 25, more preferably about 18 to about 23.